Monday, 25 August 2008

Hanoi days are here to stay by the looks of it. Resigned from my job in Sydney to escape the terror of returning to become institutionalized again. How do you wake up to find you've been at the same University for 18 years? That is half my life.

So SE Asia it is for the present. And back to the horror that is looking for work - my most disliked activity next to eating my own puke. Well - almost - looking for work that is. In fact, have esaped from Hanoi for few weeks to travel around Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. My first few days in Bangkok were spent in 5 star luxury at the Sukhothai Hotel. Buckets of ice and plates of lime bought by room service to pad out my Saphire Bombay gin and Tonic. Beds like solid clouds, pillows more fluffed than any porn star. Even the Asahi brought to me by the pool came with its own individual ice bucket. The pool assitant smiling in that subservient way whilst he directed the shade umbrella over my head and I tipped my cigarette into the solid brass ashtray. This is the life.

Well not anymore! From 5 star to no star as I awoke this morning on the rock hard mattress of the New Vuang Thong Hotel. The mattress could be described as soft only if compared to the pillow. All I want from room service here is that resupply us with toilet paper. Drunken screaming Indian neighbours, moudly life-size pictures of 70's holiday beach resorts and an air conditioner that sounds like a small prop plane. This is more the life I'll be living for the next three weeks of travel through Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. At least I still have some of the gin left, sneakily transferred into a plastic water bottle for easy travel. I'll post when I can, upon what I can. End of dispatch.